Revelers just never know who they’ll run into on Halloween in West Hollywood, where a stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard is turned into the world’s largest late-October festival.
Some half a million Halloween partiers converged on the city Wednesday night. And everyone got in on the action – including West Hollywood City Councilman John Duran, who recounted the festival’s origins.
"We had a bunch of drunk drag queens on Santa Monica Boulevard that kept spilling out into the highway, almost getting hit by MTA buses and so we decided about 20 years ago, let’s just shut the street down," said Duran, who was dressed as a Roman gladiator.
Costumes were, as always, creative and in an election year, many people dressed up as debate-inspired memes, including "binders full of women."
And even though West Hollywood is known for its left-leaning politics, revelers from both sides of the aisle came out for the celebration.
From scary sightings to celebrity sightings, singer Rhianna was crowned the queen of the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval.
Nearly the entire city shuts down for the annual event, which makes the celebration a boon for bars like Fiesta Cantina. Halloween in WeHo is easily the biggest night for most restaurants in the city.
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"We’ve been working on Halloween forever," said manager Marcos Gomez. "I mean, most people who live and work in West Hollywood learn to mentally prepare, at least sometime around the end of summer."
